Scout Master Earl Harlan

"I’m proud to be the first Scout troop to achieve this rank. I’m also terrified to be the first Scout troop to achieve this rank. The two emotions are mixing inside my body and it’s confusing. It’s confusing."

Earl Harlan is a resident of Night Vale, a childhood friend of Cecil Palmer, a Scout Master of the Night Vale chapter of the Boy Scouts of America, and later the sous chef of Tourniquet.

Earl and Cecil graduated from Night Vale High School in the same year, though neither can remember what year that was.

Earl claimed he was nineteen years old for a long time, until suddenly, he was a middle-aged adult with a job and family, and no memory how he got to that point.

Harlan was one of the leaders of the Night Vale Boy Scouts until the events of Eternal Scouts. He is one of the victims of the mute children, who drag him away among dozens of others.

Somehow, he survived the mute children, and as of Capital Campaign, he is the sous chef at Tourniquet.

He will sometimes appear on Night Vale Community Radio in the recurring segment "Cooking Stuff with Earl Harlan," where he will share recipes with Cecil and the listeners.

Earl Harlan was Cecil Palmer's childhood best friend. They were in the scouts together and Earl taught Cecil a way to hook his phone up to the radio station while earning their 'Subversive Radio Show Host' badges.

It's implied that Earl was in (or was about to be in) a relationship with Cecil at some point, and still carried something of a flame for him. Earl's last words to Cecil were, "We could have had something, Cecil. Always remember that," said with a shiver while clutching Cecil's arm during an interview at the radio station. Earl then exits the studio, dejected.

When Earl is taken by the scout children, Cecil says that he thinks often about the last moments he spent with him and the things that were said.